White Ribbon Day - 20 Years Ago

Twenty years ago today a man walked into the École Polytechnique in Montreal, separated male from female students,and started killing the women, for daring to be women who wanted to be engineers. 14 women died. Here are their names:

* Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
* Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
* Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
* Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
* Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
* Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
* Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department
* Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
* Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
* Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
* Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
* Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
* Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
* Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre )

I am not sure how I didn't hear about this, since I was 14 when it happened, but I am glad I did not. If I had I might have thought twice about becoming an engineer. That's one of the points of violence against women: keeping us scared.

Books 2009 - 1

Daggerspell - Katherine Kerr - a very good read. There are 15 in the series, and I am looking forward to read my way through. It's interesting how she jumps around in time, but it was not hard to keep what was happening straight in my head.


Year's total: 150